What we do

At the end of 2007, Georgina Baglin, a Project manager at IET in the UK, spent three weeks working on behalf of the Trust at Meetse A Bophelo Primary School in Mamelodi funded by the company. While she was there she made a video about Mamelodi and life at the school and you can view this by clicking here. It gives a good introduction to the work of the Trust.

During the apartheid era, it was Government policy to depress the aspirations of black people by ensuring that they received very little education. Schools received minimal funding and even as late as 1997, when the Trust started its work in Mamelodi, schools received no funding beyond the provision of teachers. As a result it was normal to find schools with large classes, some poorly trained teachers, but no books or other resources for the children to use.

Although schools do now receive some funding from the state, this is insufficient to provide an adequate education for children. The Mamelodi Trust raises money in the UK and makes grants to schools to enable them to purchase books and other learning materials. We have also funded visits by experienced UK teachers and advisory teachers to help schools in Mamelodi develop the quality of learning and teaching.

We are supporting schools as they try to improve their provision. We are helping them to:

• raise pupils’ achievement and provide them with the skills necessary for employment in the new South Africa;
• undertake staff training to improve the quality of teaching and learning;
• develop staff training to deal with issues relating to HIV/Aids;
• develop computer and Internet facilities to provide new opportunities for learning and communication with partners in the UK;
• purchase books, learning resources and other equipment;
• create grassed playing areas to replace dusty, hard play areas.

The Trust currently supports four schools which:

• serve several of Mamelodi’s informal settlements;
• are housed in run-down, and sometimes unsafe buildings;
• have large and overcrowded classes;
• have few books or teaching aids and virtually no equipment for maths, science and technology;
• care for children infected by HIV/Aids;
• receive only limited local funding;
• are unable to benefit from financial support from parents since over 90% are unemployed;
• run feeding schemes for the children.

So far, funds provided by the Trust have been used in four schools and the Mamelodi Teachers’ Centre:

• to purchase books and a wide range of other learning resources;
• to refurbish classrooms, toilets and staff work areas;
• to improve school environments and play facilities for the children;
• to create and equip a computer room and science laboratory in Zakhele School;
• to improve security so that new resources and equipment are safe;
• to create small libraries for use by children and their parents;
• to build and equip a brand new library at Meetse a Bophelo School;
• to provide children with football and netball kit;
• to provide gas to heat food for the children;
• to provide teacher resources in the Mamelodi Teachers’ Centre;
• to part-fund working visits by UK teachers to train and support Mamelodi teachers;
• to facilitate visits to schools in the UK by Mamelodi teachers.